hypnotic sky-lines

             /white flags             on war canoes

Kamehameha     in his feathered cloak                         

unclear hand-signals to               Williamson in

the pinnace

                 two minutes                    to reload              

              a musket/

jib,  mizzen,  capstan,  windlass          their erotic pulse

on the tongue

            a South Sea shilling              in a draper’s till

intoxications      of Whitby to a land-                   locked

labourer’s son

the heady rush       of reef                          

where it shouldn’t be

                     emptiness

charts

Charles de Brosses                             Martin de Aguilar

Antoine de Bougainville

                          Ferdinand Magellan

                  Abel Janszoon Tasman

Luis Vaez de Torres

/

land-grab tag           BREAD FRUIT

                                                          prize money

THE NATIONAL

INTEREST

hogs, water, fish, fruit, roots, women

exchanged

for red feathers, nails, baubles –  later

iron daggers